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Weight Training: HST and Whey Protein

April 2, 2006 | Updated: February 25, 2007

Everyone has their favorite weight lifting system, usually comprised of advice and tips picked up through the years from health magazines and fellow gym rats. The biggest problem with this accumulation method is that often you end up combining training techniques based on conflicting principles. One way to avoid this issue is to pick a system that explains to you the principles it’s based on (so you understand why it works) while allowing you to pick and change the specific exercises (so you don’t get bored). My favorite is Hypertrophy-Specific Training. Created by Bryan Haycock, it’s designed strictly for increasing muscle size efficiently. It’s not meant for athletes looking to increase performance, althought it might be useful in the off-season.

Looking like Boris here is not necessarily the goal; the keyword is efficiency. The creator took the muscle-building principles gleaned from medical research and created something that minimizes the time spent on training while maximizing results. The basic idea is this: you train for 6-8 weeks and then take a week off. During the training weeks, you steadily move from high-repetition sets (say, 15 reps) the first week to low-repetition sets (say, 5 reps) the last week. For each week, you keep the increasing the weight each session. This allows you to progressively increase the load without quickly hitting a plateau. You train each muscle groups 3 times a week. This means either 3 all-body sessions or 6 shorter sessions where you split up the workout. This is because muscles adapt and un-adapt to training rather quickly and you don’t want wait too long between sessions. Consistency is very important. The week off allows you to decondition slightly to avoid hitting a ceiling and it reduces your mental fatigue.

There are more details, of course, so go check out the specifics at the HST website. As an example, here’s my HST schedule.

Although I love the system, I must say that I haven’t heard great things about his fast/slow whey protein. Apparently, the difference is minimal while the cost increase is substantial. I prefer the microfiltered Whey Protein Isolate manufactured by NOW Foods. You can also get it in a pure, unflavored version without added junk like artificial sugars and xanthan gum. The powder mixes easily and if you toss it into a smoothie, you can’t taste it. On the other hand, if you like the artificial, sugary taste, there are plenty of options. Just stay away from whey proteins filtered using ion exchange (look for microfiltration), as it eliminates important proteins like glycomacropeptide, lactoferrin, and peptide fragments.

If you’re looking for additional nutritional and fitness information, I recommend Christian Finn’s Facts About Fitness. Some of the articles are subscriber only, but there’s a lot of free information as well.

Entry Filed under: Health & Fitness